3 Character Sketches

Coffee, toast and four paracetamol: three major food groups satisfied, he opened the morning mail. Is it still morning mail when you open it at 4 pm? A strange time to have breakfast, but at least Greg was having it in a flat he recognised. Not his own mind you. Greg doesn’t have a flat, a house, a cottage, mansion or even a tent. Greg picks up older men. On the tube, in the pub, once even at the Dome. Greg goes home with them. Greg murders them and stays in their home until he can’t stand the smell. You always check the post though. There might be a cheque or a replacement credit card in the mail. You don’t want to let the letters pile up on the welcome mat either, And you'd better take the milk in. Greg doesn’t need nosy neighbours, thank you.

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I love my new leg. Of course, it’s not like the old one. There’s no give in hard plastic. I’m quite good on it now… it was hard at first, sure. You have no idea how unbalanced you feel when you first try to stand. No, I mean it, I was quite used to one leg. It seems to me now, that I balanced better quicker. After I lost my flesh leg, you understand. It’s not part of me yet, this new leg. It feels odd, like wearing someone else’s shoes. But I love it, I do…

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I thought he would never change but I married him anyway. I was mad for him.
The passion, the anger, the lovemaking, the fights. He only really hurt me twice, he didn’t mean to, I know he didn’t . He did love me. He used to tell me every day. What’s a little discomfort when your man tells you he loves you every single day? Oh, the presents, the flowers, the little gestures. Like when he brought my favourite Belgian chocolates to the hospital. Although I couldn’t eat them until the wires came off, but he looked so crestfallen about it, it was almost as good to watch him eat them. But he did change, suddenly he didn’t pay any attention to me at all. Nothing. He was so cold to me, hardly spoke. I felt I didn’t exist. If only he would notice me, I thought.

Dr Kellerman talks about my father every week, but I don’t want MY DADDY, I want John. But John is gone, I killed him.